1. Relevant Field
The present inventions generally relate to business application software. More particularly, the inventions relate to systems, methods and computer readable media for modeling of business applications and the use of a model to create, improve, and maintain a business application.
2. Background Information
One drawback with legacy business application systems stems from how business data and rules are often contained in physically separate table data structures, with little user-friendly representation of the organization or relationships of those structures. Such table-driven systems are difficult to work with. For example, a business object may be defined across ten or more different database tables that are not easily accessed, displayed, or understood together.
Furthermore, as shown in the example of FIG. 3A, a table-driven business application typically stores its configuration data 305 and its rules 310 in multiple, physically separate tables. Considered statically, there is no obvious or easily determined relationship or connection 315 between configuration data 305 and rules 310. At runtime, however, configuration data 305 and rules 310 interrelate 320 because the configuration data 305 and the rules 310 affect each other. For example, some configuration data 305, may affect the execution of rules 310. The physical separation between related data and between data and rules, the lack of static indications of runtime interactions between data and rules, and other factors make the data and processes of a business application difficult to understand, difficult to create, difficult to debug, and difficult to modify without causing unexpected effects.
In view of the foregoing, it is desirable to take business application structures and translate them into user-friendly objects that can be more easily understood, manipulated, debugged, designed, redesigned, analyzed, and/or modified.